The video above showcases six general steps toward achieving better posture, and there's a whole list of health benefits good posture can help with: keeping back pain at bay, protecting our muscles and organs, and allowing for deeper breathing (which in turn can aid in concentration).

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10 Ways To Help Your Posture(CLONED)

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Now that many of us spend our days hunched in front of a computer, "it's very important for us to be able to stretch and open up and improve our range of motion," says Jonathan F. Bean, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., an assistant professor in the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
To stay limber, try to get up for a couple minutes every half hour and stretch, walk, or stand.
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Try this exercise: Every morning and night, lie down on the floor and make slow "snow angels" with your arms for two or three minutes.
For an extra challenge, roll up a towel and put it on the floor underneath your spine. Many gyms have half foam rollers -- a tube cut in half lengthwise -- that you can use for even more of a stretch.
But do these stretches slowly and stop if you feel anything worse than mild discomfort or pain, says Dr. Bean. "You want to work up to that, you want to make sure that you first get the flexibility."

When you do have to work at a desk, "sitting up with good, tall posture and your shoulders dropped is a good habit to get into," says Rebecca Seguin, Ph.D, an exercise physiologist and nutritionist in Seattle.
This can take some getting used to; exercise disciplines that focus on body awareness, such as Pilates and yoga, can help you to stay sitting straight, Seguin says. Make sure your workstation is set up to promote proper posture.

Pilates and yoga are great ways to build up the strength of your "core"-- the muscles of your abdomen and pelvic area.
These muscles form the foundation of good posture, and a strong core can have many other benefits, from improving your athletic performance to preventing urinary incontinence.
A stronger core can even make sex more fun.

In addition to helping to increase body awareness and core strength, yoga is an excellent way to build and maintain flexibility and strengthen muscles throughout your body, Dr. Bean says.
Start practicing yoga gradually and listen to how your body responds, he points out. Make sure your yoga teacher is sensitive to your needs and abilities, and available for feedback. Hatha or restorative yoga are good places to start if you're a beginner.

After menopause, women may have more weakening in the muscles around the spine than aging men do, Dr. Bean says.
Exercises targeting the back extensors, neck flexors, pelvic muscles, and side muscles are crucial. Trainers at gyms can help; there are even special machines that target these muscles.
Endurance in the spine and trunk muscle groups is important too, according to Dr. Bean; "that's what allows us to stand up for long periods of time without our back hurting us."

The vertebral compression fractures that subtract from our height -- and can lead to the "dowager's hump" in the upper back that's a hallmark of old age -- are due to the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.
Women -- and men -- can prevent these changes with weight-bearing exercises, like walking, stair climbing, and weight lifting.
"People who walk regularly through their whole lives tend to have better bone density than sedentary people," Seguin explains.

Vitamin D is essential for bone health, and may help us maintain our muscles too.
Try to get it from a healthy diet. A recent report from the Institute of Medicine, an independent, nonprofit organization, found that most of us get enough vitamin D from food and sunlight without taking supplements.
The recommended dietary intake for vitamin D is 600 IU a day for women up to age 70 and 800 IU for women older than 70.

We all know the bone benefits of calcium. It is recommended that women 19 to 50 years old get 1,000 milligrams of calcium daily. For older women, it's 1,200 milligrams. But again, it may be best to get calcium from food rather than supplements.
The recent Institute of Medicine report found that most people, except adolescent girls, get enough calcium from their diet. In addition, studies have shown that people taking calcium supplements have higher rates of heart attacks and kidney stones.
Talk with your physician about whether or not you need to take supplemental calcium.

Your doctor will be able to tell you whether you need a bone mineral density scan to detect osteopenia or osteoporosis.
Although Seguin says that activities like progressive resistance training can halt or reverse bone loss in some cases, medications may also help. These include bisphosphonates like Boniva, Reclast, and Fosamax. (Although safe, such drugs can increase the risk of rare fractures or other problems.)
Hormone-based medications that can help build bone density include Evista (raloxifene), calcitonin, and parathyroid hormone.
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